Karen McCrocklin, of Dallas, carries a Texas flag with pink running shoes similar to those worn by state Sen. Wendy Davis during her pro-choice filibuster on July 1. / Jay Janner, AP

by Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

by Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

AUSTIN - A federal appeals court's decision late Thursday to allow Texas' abortion restrictions to remain in place is already leading to the closing of clinics and services across the state.

But the decision could have greater ramifications and ultimately wind up as a major case before the U.S. Supreme Court, say analysts following the case.

The ruling from a panel of judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans came just three days after a federal district judge struck down the provision of the Texas law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. A lawsuit on this and other restrictions will be heard by that same federal appeals court in January.

In his ruling earlier this week, Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision served no medical purpose and placed an undue obstacle for women to access abortion services. The 5th Circuit disagreed and reinstated the law, which went into effect Friday, earning praise from supporters.

"This unanimous decision is a vindication of the careful deliberation by the Texas Legislature to craft a law to protect the health and safety of Texas women," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who made the emergency appeal to the 5th Circuit.

Unlike four other states across the USA that have passed similar restrictions, Texas is the first to win the right to implement them while they're challenged in court, said Elizabeth Nash, policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based policy and research center that advocates reproductive health rights for women. In the four other states - North Dakota, Wisconsin, Alabama and Mississippi - the mandate to force abortion clinics to have hospital admitting privileges has been suspended while the law is debated in court, she said.

The fact that the 5th Circuit strayed from other rulings on this issue makes the case a likely candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, Nash said. "It's a huge sea-change," she said. "To allow this kind of law to go into effect during a court case is a very different approach to what we've been seeing in other court cases on the same subject."

Already Friday, officials at four Planned Parenthood health centers in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco and Austin began contacting patients to tell them abortion services will be discontinued at those clinics, said Sarah Wheat, a spokeswoman with Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, which covers the Austin-Dallas-Fort Worth region.

Overall, about one-third of the 36 clinics offering abortion services in Texas would close or stop offering services under the new law, impacting about 20,000 women, she said. "We definitely think this is an unconstitutional law," Wheat said. "It has such a direct impact on whether women can access abortion services."

Supporters of the restrictions, however, say a majority of lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Texas legislature have vowed to fight abortion at all levels and ensure that those clinics are safe, despite federal regulations and prior court decisions that guarantee women's right to abortions.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has tied the hands of state legislatures in this issue," said Joe Pojman, executive director of the pro-life group Texas Alliance for Life. "But the court does allow states to regulate abortion to increase safety standards. That is what the state of Texas is doing."

A sharp increase in the number of state restrictions on abortion the past few years points to a national, concerted effort by anti-abortion groups to erode the rights offered in historic Supreme Court rulings, such as Roe v. Wade, Nash said. In the past three years there have been 203 abortion restrictions enacted in 30 states across the USA - just nine shy of the total number of restrictions passed the entire previous decade, she said.

Much of the upcoming debate on this issue will center on whether women are being given an "undue burden" to access to abortion services, a standard upheld in previous Supreme Court rulings, Nash said.

"Having the 5th Circuit throw down this gauntlet will have ramifications for other cases," she said. "This case has legs."